We invite you to share your experiences and to post information about advocacy, research and other gifted education issues on this free public discussion forum.CLICK HEREto Log In. Click herefor the Board Rules.

Honestly, with an EG/PG kiddo, the extracurriculars are what keeps her sane. This is the method through which we've been able to teach her skills like perseverance, responsibility, doing one's BEST when it won't be THE best, etc. It certainly hasn't been possible through academic means. (Gosh, thanks school for listening to us and working with us on this-- NOT... ) As for 4-H lowering odds of admission to competitive private colleges... er-- well, I'd like to think that most of the places that are looking for Polo and third-world-orphanage building as extracurriculars are NOT the kinds of places that DD is wanting to go, anyway. I'm also guessing-- STRONGLY-- that this statistic is skewed heavily by kids who look very "ag" oriented. Naturally, there are any number of reasons why a kid who has done a decade of market-animal projects wouldn't be a great fit at Yale. Just saying. Archery or digital arts, though? I'm thinking probably not the same.

Do be willing to consider international post-secondary. We are-- and we have some VERY significant barriers to doing it because of DD's medical issues and our plan for me to use renewed employment at DD's location to pay for her post-secondary education.

Depending on how accelerated your kiddo is, they may/may not really have any opportunity to contribute financially to their college costs. Realistically, this is DD's situation-- she has a savings account with a staggering sum of money in it-- for a MC kid who just turned 14, that is. She saves VERY well. She just doesn't have a regular source of cash the way a 16yo with a summer job would. For kids who are 12-16, or those who are disabled somehow, contributing to college savings is just not terribly realistic when you're looking at college costs in the many thousands annually. And to be clear, unless you're looking at local community colleges-- that IS what the costs are going to be, even at local state flagships, for most families.

From what I can tell, as long as the stock market doesn't crash again in a HUGE meltdown, private schools will be increasing in costs at about 3-4%. I wouldn't count on that with public institutions-- it COULD be that low, but it could look like CA, too, depending upon what individual state legislatures feel compelled to do. Anywhere that unemployment numbers are high, take a look at how well-funded higher ed is within that state... because that is directly tied to tuition increases. The unemployment rate in a state is tied to its overall economic health-- and how the state is handling it also tells you something about long-term priorities/methodology. For an example of what I mean, NC used to look like a very good bargain even for out-of-state students, and because of the commitment to affordable higher ed there, UNC-Chapel Hill also has a very high level of elite students admitted. On the other hand, during the past year, the state of NC has been quite busy slashing spending in that sector (and others)-- so as a long-term bet, this is no longer such a good one. We will be wary, and we're only trying to look 5 years ahead. Even that is quite challenging in the public sector.

Another thing that we worry about a bit with DD's triple acceleration is what colleges will THINK about that during admissions-- will MIT think "there's no way that we want a 15yo living in the dorms" or will they not care? Is there some way to point out that she WON'T be living on campus, but off-campus with a parent?? Should we? I know that a lot of parents really feel that the dorm/house experience is an integral feature of college, but we don't (and we have other reasons why it isn't feasible anyway-- so even on a campus which requires it, she'll be exempt).

_________________________Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.